Page 77 of Girl, Sought

‘Ell. You hear that?’

‘I hear it. Vanessa? Where are you?’

More choking. Wet, desperate gasps that spoke of airways compressed and oxygen denied. The sound came from beyond the house's western edge.

‘Side gate.’ Luca was already moving. ‘Come on!’

They sprinted around the corner. A wooden gate blocked their path – seven feet of solid oak between them, and whatever horror waited on the other side.

Ella didn't hesitate. She put on a burst of speed and hit the gate at full tilt, using her shoulder as a battering ram. Pain shot through her burns, but adrenaline buried it deep. The gate gave with a crack of splintering wood.

The scene hit her retinas in freeze-frame fragments:

A narrow passage between house and fence.

Vanessa Blackburn sprawled face-down on dead grass with one hand clutching her throat. Vanessa convulsed, retched, then spat a gobbet of bloody drool onto the flagstones and sucked in a whistling, agonized breath.

Ella's legs nearly went out from under her. Relief hit like a freight train. She scrambled forward and fell to her knees at the other woman's side.

‘Vanessa! Oh Christ.’ Vanessa's neck was a ruin, flayed and purpling with the imprint of a garrote. ‘What happened? Who did this?’

Vanessa's eyes rolled, unfocused. She coughed, choked. Fresh blood bubbled over her lips. Behind them, Ella could Luca hear on the phone.

‘Woods..’ The word was mangled, forced out through a bruised throat on a thread of air. ‘He went… woods.’

‘Medics are on the way.’ Luca closed in and helped Vanessa up to a sitting position. Her face was flushed red where the blood had rushed in after being denied oxygen. ‘Vanessa, hey. Stay with me.’

Ella caught one icy hand and chafed it between her own. Tried to will warmth back into mottled skin, to coax the fading light back into those glassy eyes. ‘The medics are coming, okay? You just focus on breathing. In and out, nice and slow.’

‘Mask… attacked me…’ Vanessa said.

Luca jumped to his feet. ‘Keep her breathing, Ell. I’ll take a look in the woods, see if he’s still there.’

‘Be safe.’

Luca rushed across the lawn, stopping to inspect some patches in the mud, then he leaped across the fence at the rear of the garden.

She swiped a hand over her face, brushing away rain, tears. Crouched at Vanessa's side once more, shedding her damp coat to drape over the other woman's shoulders. Vanessa flinched from the touch.

'Vanessa.' Ella worked to keep her voice steady. 'I know it hurts. I know you're scared. But I need you to stay with me, okay?'

She squeezed one birdlike wrist, felt the thready flutter of a pulse beneath her fingers. ‘Just until the medics get here. I promise, we'll get the bastard who did this. But right now, I need you to focus. I need you to remember. What do you remember?’

‘He was… waiting.’

‘Could you tell who it was? I know he has a mask, but did you see anything else? Hear his voice?’

Vanessa coughed up another globule of blood, then shook her head.

Ella could tell she wasn’t going to get much out of Vanessa, at least not until the shock had subsided, by which point it might be too late. So, she had to trust her instinct, and her instinct said that Lawrence Winters was her unsub.

‘Vanessa, this is going to sound strange, but I need the address of Lawrence Winters. Your accountant.’

The poor woman’s bloodshot eyes met Ella’s, asking a million questions at once. Ella felt like a prize fool, because there was probably a part of Vanessa that was considering that maybe Ella was just looking for tax advice.

‘I believe Lawrence Winters is responsible for these murders.’

‘Larry?’ she choked out.

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